TAMPA - Monsignor Augustine Simon Ndeukoya, director of the Office of Black Catholics for the Diocese of St. Petersburg and a teacher at the University of South Florida, died Monday (Dec. 29, 2003) in Tampa. He was 70.
Monsignor Ndeukoya became ill during the midnight Mass on Christmas at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Temple Terrace. He died later at University Community Hospital.
Monsignor Ndeukoya, parochial vicar of the church, was born in Moshi, Tanzania, on Aug. 12, 1933. He was educated in Rome and received a doctorate in canon law.
He was ordained a priest Dec. 20, 1961. While living in Africa, he was general secretary of the Bishops Conference of Tanzania and founding president of the East African Catholic University in Nairobi.
He later moved to Pittsburgh, where he served the local diocese.
After moving to the Tampa area, he served at Nativity Church in Brandon, St. Anne's Catholic Church in Ruskin and St. Joseph Catholic Church in Tampa before being assigned to Corpus Christi in 2001.
He was widely involved in scholarly discussions about religious and African issues.
Survivors include his father, two brothers and other family members in Tanzania.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Robert N. Lynch on Saturday.
